26/11 attacks survivors welcome hanging of Kasab

Updated: Wednesday, November 21, 2012, 15:38 [IST]

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Mumbai, Nov 21: Survivors of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack on Wednesday, Nov 21 expressed happiness over the hanging of Ajmal Kasab, the sole surviving terrorist from the 26/11 terror attack. Kasab was hanged to death at 7.30 AM at Yerwada jail in Pune early this morning after President Pranab Mukherjee rejected his mercy plea earlier this month.

"I am very much happy that Kasab has been hanged. But I would have been happier if this would have been done in public. It is a good news that a terrorist has been hanged... Wish this should have been done on the anniversary of the attack this year," 13-year-old Devika Rotwan, who was shot in the right leg in the terror attack, said.

Devika, who studies in class IX now, had gone to the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) with her family members and was waiting for a train, when two terrorists opened fire. Bhisham Mansukhani, who escaped the attack at the Taj Hotel, told PTI, "I am taken aback! It is surprising! I feel the death penalty is more of a political thing. I think by executing the death penalty, the government is trying to earn brownie points and use this as a tool to brandish this during elections."

Mansukhani was on the roof-top of the Taj Mahal hotel in Colaba in south Mumbai on the dreadful night of Nov 26. "By hanging Kasab, the government is trying to show that they have delivered justice, but to me this seems to be a political thing," he said.

Dr Kuresh Zorabi, whose bakery opposite Chabad House (Nariman House) in south Mumbai, was splattered with bullet holes in the 26/11 attack, said, "It is surprising and shocking, but at the same time I am little disappointed that all this was kept secret. This is difficult to digest for a second. I am thrilled that Kasab has been hanged. This will serve as a lesson to terrorists that India can take strict action against them."

Though Zorabi is content that Kasab has been hanged to death, he hopes that other perpetrators of the 26/11 attack, who are in Pakistan also meet a similar fate.